Deadbeat - Versionist Carmot EP

Deadbeat - Versionist Carmot EP
The miser in me appreciates the value of four-track 12-inches, and Deadbeat’s been generous recently. His latest for Wagon Repair ‘Versionist Carmot’, hot on the heels of 3 tracker ‘Eastwood to Mecca’, offers four outwardly varied pieces, although perhaps these differences aren’t as marked as they first seem.

The longer opening cuts on both sides are variants on dubbed out 4/4, but both offer novel takes on the style. ‘Boil’ on the A1 is one of the rawest techno tracks I’ve heard: the dub is present in the prominent offbeat pulse and trademark hiss and squelch, but it’s all extremely abrasive, as though hastily chiselled from granite. ‘Evaporate’ is more understated and pleasing, a restrained deep house rhythm covered in sparse low-end shudders. Closely modelled on MRI’s deep-dub monster ‘You’re Out You’re In’ from many moons ago, it’s equally heavy and sensual but gets it done in 6 minutes.

A2’s ‘Freeze’ is even shorter, a cavernous slab of skanking dub that clocks in at just three minutes (but then again that’s the length of most Trojan tracks). This is moth-eaten dub, King Tubby riddled with holes, held together by flimsy threads of static. ‘Incinerator’ meanwhile is frenzied two-step, with whirring tones and aggressive digi-dub screeches, intentionally destroying all semblance of calm suggested by ‘Freeze’.

These are all strong productions from Montieth, but what surprises is how easily these sounds sit together. While safely situated in the dub and techno camps, there is also a coherent diversity to it, which even hints at the dubstep of the Shackleton crossover school.